Inequality and the capability approach

1
Inequality and the capability approach

• Tania Burchardt
• ESRC Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion
• London School of Economics

2
Outline

• Values, concepts, measurement and policy
• Autonomy and capability
• Critiques of the capability approach
• Measurement problems and possibilities
• Policy-making in a capabilities framework
• Social policy in conflict

3
The value of individual autonomy

• Aristotle eudemonia, human flourishing
• Marx communist society makes it possible for me
  to do one thing today, and another tomorrow, to
  hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear
  cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner,
  just as I have a mind
• Theory of human need (Doyal and Gough)
  critical participation in chosen form of life

4
Capability approach

• Broad evaluative framework
• Focus on what individuals are able to be and do
• Functioning actual activity or state of being
  eg being healthy
• Functioning vector combination of functionings
  at any one time
  eg caring for
  elderly parent AND being healthy
• Capability set set of alternative functioning
  vectors available to an individual
  eg (caring for
  elderly parent AND being healthy) OR
  (receiving care services AND being healthy AND
  being in paid work)

5
Relationship to other conceptions of equality of
opportunity

Opportunity personal attributes resources
talents institutions effort
Weak
Formal equality of opportunity equalise effects
of differences in irrelevant personal
attributes Meritocracy equalise effects of
differences in personal attributes and
resources Responsibility egalitarianism
equalise effects of differences in resources and
talents Capability approach equalise effects
of differences in resources and talents and
institutions (and some aspects of effort)
Strong
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Criticisms of the capability approach

• Individualistic
• normative individualism, not methodological
• Perfectionist
• Nussbaum fulfilling potential
• Sen social model of disability
• Incomplete
• a virtue??
• Unoriginal
• synthesis of (i) multidimensional human ends,
  (ii) importance of effective freedom, (iii) role
  of institutions and system of entitlements
• Unworkable

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Measurement problems and possibilities 1

• Which capabilities?

• Nussbaum
• Life
• Health
• Bodily integrity
• Senses, imagination, thought
• Emotions
• Practical reason
• Affiliation
• Other species
• Play
• Control over ones environment

• Sen
• Depends on purpose
• Selection process should be participative and
  democratic / transparent open to criticism
• Well-being
• self-regarding functionings
• (health, security...)
• Agency goals
• individuals own objectives
• (writing a novel, freeing Tibet)

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Measurement problems and possibilities 2

• Distinguishing lack of capability and free choice

• Potential solutions
• Focus on constraints

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Predicted lack of capability for employment of
those not in employment who lack employment
capability, given existing constraints
Source Burchardt (2005), using BHPS Wave 6
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Measurement problems and possibilities 2

• Distinguishing lack of capability and free choice

• Potential solutions
• Focus on constraints
• Hierarchy of capabilities
• - basic capabilities universal
• - intermediate capabilities presumption of no
  systematic difference in values
• - complex capabilities supplementary evidence on
  values required

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Proposed hierarchy for analysis of gender
inequality in Britain Robeyns (2003)

• Basic
• physical mental health bodily integrity
  safety shelter environment respect
• Intermediate
• education knowledge mobility leisure
  religion time-autonomy
• Complex
• social relations political empowerment domestic
  and care work paid work

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Measurement problems and possibilities 2

• Distinguishing lack of capability and free choice

• Potential solutions
• Focus on constraints
• Hierarchy of capabilities
• - basic capabilities universal
• - intermediate capabilities presumption of no
  systematic difference in values
• - complex capabilities supplementary evidence on
  values required
• Longitudinal (lifetime) measures of autonomy

13
Policy-making in a capabilities framework 1

• In practice...
• UNDP Human Development Reports
• index of life expectancy, literacy/school
  enrolment, and GDP per capita
• HDR 2005 detailed examination of inequality
  within rich nations, eg infant mortality by
  ethnicity in US
• Development projects in the global South
• Germanys National Action Plan

14
Policy-making in a capabilities framework 2

• In principle...
• Process of measurement is participative
• Prioritisation of basic capabilities (eg life
  expectancy, health, security)...
• ...and of children and young people
  (capability-formation)
• Focus on what people are able to do (income as
  means to an end)
• Discrimination, fear, time poverty, etc, are
  equally significant constraints
• Structural change (removing constraints) not just
  compensation for existing inequality
• Enabling not compulsion (respect for diversity of
  human ends)
• Process of policy-making and implementation is
  participative

15
Social policy in a divided society

• Measurement of inequality is normative no
  technical fixes
• Job of social science to make implicit values
  explicit to illustrate consequences of
  alternatives
• Indicators and policies grounded in clear
  conceptual framework
• Values ? concepts ? measures ? policies
  especially important where there is a history of
  conflict?

reaffirmed their faith in ... the dignity and
worth of the human person and in the equal rights
of men and women and have determined to promote
social progress and better standards of life in
larger freedom Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, 1948